


It All Started With A Book

by ruff_ethereal



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Middle School, Body Image, Bullying, F/F, Insecurity, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 07:47:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3802444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruff_ethereal/pseuds/ruff_ethereal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Honey Lemon met GoGo while she was trying to reach a book on the high shelves. She was too short, and Honey Lemon was tall, so naturally, Honey had to help.</p><p>It was the start of a lot of things, but Honey didn't realize that then.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Specifically, In The Math And Engineering Stacks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tomagolemon](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=tomagolemon).



On the one hand, the girl needed help. She was trying to reach one of the books on the high shelves, and she was short as Honey Lemon was tall—that is to say, very.

On the other, she looked mean. Really mean. And if she looked this angry from not being able to reach a library book, then how much more could she get?

A part of Honey Lemon—the optimistic side—said she might not make fun of Honey Lemon.

Another part of Honey Lemon—the realistic, but not pessimistic side—reminded her that everyone made fun of Honey Lemon. Especially nowadays, when puberty had hit _everyone,_ some like a freight train.

Honey Lemon had always been taller and lankier than everyone else, but puberty had just worsened that. And with what you look like—especially compared to what you _used_ to look like—on everyone's mind every single day… well, it was really a question of _when_ she'd get made fun of, rather than _if._

A third part—the pessimistic side—tried to speak up, but Honey Lemon didn't let it say so much as a peep. It always made her feel bad, and she didn't like feeling bad.

I mean, who did?

So, Honey Lemon walked over, and got the book for the girl. Helping others always made her feel better, so much that Honey was smiling as she handed it over.

She hoped she wouldn't have a reason to stop smiling soon. Those were the worst—even worse than the pessimistic side.

But, to Honey's delight, the girl smiled back as she took the book.

“Thanks.” She said.

“You're welcome.” Honey Lemon replied, just as she was taught to, and always did.

It was then that Honey finally noticed just what book the girl was holding in her hands—and with their difference in height, it was easy to see the cover:

“Advanced Engineering Principles and Concepts”

And then Honey Lemon remembered what she was doing in the library in the first place: she was looking for a book on chemistry.

“This library needs more ladders.” The girl grumbled.

“Definitely.” Honey Lemon replied.

The library books were arranged from grade level and difficulty from ascending order, starting from the bottom shelves. The logic being, by the time someone would need, want to, or be able to read it, they would be old enough and consequently tall enough to actually reach it.

But if students like this girl—and the older students who were short—couldn't reach them, well, the library definitely needed more ladders.

“Hey.”

Honey Lemon snapped out of her mild outrage at the lack of accessibility for the vertically lacking, and turned to the girl. “Hm?”

“Did you need to find a book or something for class? You helped me get mine, I help you get yours, you know.”

Honey Lemon nodded automatically. It hadn't occurred to her that she might want not want to have a reason to keep interacting with this girl—if only because that minimized the chances of her being made fun of.

If you weren't around, they couldn't make fun of you. It was flawless logic. Well, more accurately, you couldn't _hear_ them make fun of you, but still, it worked.

The girl looked back to the stacks of engineering and mathematics books. “So what is it?”

“Hm?”

The girl gave her a withering look. “The book you were looking for?”

Honey Lemon jumped a little and blushed. “Oh, right, it's uh...”

She debated lying. But then, that meant she would have to spend time searching for a book she didn't really need, and that would waste the girl's time, too, which made it doubly bad, so she didn't.

“It's a book on chemistry--'Sustainable Solutions for a New World,' it's called.”

The girl nodded. “You need it for class?”

Honey Lemon shook her head. “Actually, no, I need it for my own personal research.”

Honey Lemon froze. Terror filled her. “Personal research” implied she was studying for fun. And it also implied that she, obviously, wanted to be a scientist of some sort, or was doing something that required science.

She started thinking of what exactly this total stranger would think of someone like her wanting to become a scientist.

Honey Lemon knew she didn't look the part, at all—sure, her glasses were big, and glasses were nerdy, but did they ever have them in bright pink? And did any scientist she know wear dozens of rainbow good luck bangles on her arms, dresses that went out of style sometime in the 60's-70's, and pink kitten flip-flops?

The optimistic part of her said the girl would think it was pretty cool that she wanted to be a scientist at best, or make a polite, noncommittal answer that didn't swing to any real opinion.

The realistic, but not pessimistic part of her said the girl would probably look at her strangely, but only for a few seconds before they went off in search of the book.

The pessimistic part of her… well, Honey Lemon still wasn't listening to that.

The girl hummed. “You a scientist or something?”

Again, Honey Lemon shook her head. “Not yet. But I want to become one.”

The girl smiled. “That's cool. I want to become a scientist, too. An engineer.”

Honey Lemon smiled back even wider. “I want to become a chemist.”

The girl put her book under her arm and held out her other hand. “They call me GoGo.”

Honey Lemon reached out and took it. “Everyone calls me Honey Lemon.”

There were many more names than that, but Honey Lemon was the one that wasn't used to make fun of her.

“Let's go find that book, then, Honey.” GoGo said, before she walked off in search of the chemistry section.

Honey Lemon nodded and happily followed after her.

It was the start of a lot of big things, but Honey Lemon didn't know that just yet.


	2. Then Along Came A Bully

Honey Lemon thought her interactions with GoGo would end after they both checked out their books and went their separate ways.

So they were both girls. So they both read books that most kids their age couldn't even begin to understand. So they both wanted to be scientists.

They were still vastly different from each other. They both probably had very different friends. They both belonged to very different worlds.

In short, there was little rhyme or reason for them to be together.

The optimistic part of her said that that belonging to two different worlds certainly didn't stop anyone.

The realistic, but not pessimistic part of her said that most of those people were in fiction, and it was extremely easy to be friends with someone who belonged to a different world when you had the Power of the Plot to conveniently bring you two together for entertaining adventures.

The pessimistic part she didn't listen to, as usual.

But now that Honey Lemon knew GoGo existed, she couldn't help but notice her, and go to her. It was human nature: head to the familiar.

They had some classes together, and if the seating arrangements weren't fixed, Honey Lemon did her best to be sitting next to or close to GoGo.

GoGo was walking in the hallways and Honey Lemon decided to catch up and fall in step with her, if only for a few seconds to chat and catch up, because Honey Lemon's next class was in the opposite direction.

GoGo was sitting at one of the more isolated tables in the cafeteria, the ones that had one side pressed up to a wall because there just wasn't enough space, and Honey Lemon joined her there. She rather enjoyed that the two of them could easily hold a conversation about anything without the other pausing for clarification.

(Though really, it was more GoGo nodding, grunting, shaking her head, and making different facial expressions; and Honey Lemon doing most of the actual talking.)

GoGo never complained. Honey Lemon rather liked being around her, and she figured GoGo felt the same, only she never really said it out loud. And slowly, but surely, the two of them became the best of friends.

Honey Lemon couldn't really pin-point the exact moment it happened.

Perhaps it was when GoGo asked Honey Lemon if she wanted to ride with GoGo on her bicycle—and as far as both remembered, GoGo was a strictly solo rider until then.

Perhaps it was when Honey Lemon had invited GoGo back to her house to go bake brownies together—or rather, Honey Lemon baked brownies; GoGo mostly watched, chatted idly, and fetched ingredients for her; and the two of them enjoyed the finished product together.

(When Honey Lemon asked why she didn't want to help her bake, GoGo replied, “I tried cooking. Once.” and that was the end of that conversation.)

Perhaps it was one of those times when they found themselves in the library again, Honey Lemon looking and reaching up into the high shelves, GoGo looking and reaching down into the low shelves, the two of them walking to the checkout counter together.

But whenever that was, what was important to Honey Lemon was that GoGo was her best friend, she was happy around her, and little could ruin that.

“Hey! Look! It's the walking stick! Get it? Because you look like a stick, and you can walk?”

… One of which was someone making fun of her.

The number of people that made jokes about her dropped dramatically ever since she started hanging out with GoGo—she was right about the meanness, though wrong about the potential recipient—there were still people that did it anyway.

And even though it was a terrible insult, it still hurt. Honey Lemon frowned, looked away, and tried to ignore him, especially once he started laughing at his complete lack of understanding of how (good) insults worked.

The optimistic side of her started talking, before all thoughts stopped and focused on GoGo as she narrowed her eyes at Honey's heckler.

GoGo scowled, hopped off her seat, and stood in front of the bully at her full height—not very impressive, but the look on her face made up for it.

“Hey, you know what they say about people who insult other people?”

The bully stopped and glared back at her. “What?”

“What they usually focus on is something they're lacking in.”

The bully stared at her blankly, trying to find an explanation in GoGo's unamused face.

GoGo sighed. “I'm saying than when you call my friend a stick here...” She gestured to their crotch area, to make sure her point wouldn't fly over their head.

While it did hit its mark, it sure took its sweet time getting there. But once it did, however, the bully's face went from blank confusion to flaming outrage.

“Why you little--”

He didn't get to finish his sentence.

Honey Lemon had seen fight scenes before in movies. Usually, they dragged on for a few minutes in total, but if there were a lot of generic grunts, the heroes tended to dispatch them within three or six seconds each.

GoGo _destroyed_ her opponent even faster than that.

Honey Lemon blinked, staring at the empty air that the bully once occupied, before she realized that they were now writhing on the floor, clutching their crotch in pain.

Whatever it was they had there, getting kicked in the googly mooglies was a universal kind of agony.

“Let's go, Honey.” GoGo said as she casually collected her book, and stepped on the bully on her way out.

Honey Lemon quietly bookmarked the page she was on, slipped out of her seat, and stepped over the bully as she followed after GoGo.

“Where did you learn to do _that?”_ Honey Lemon said after they'd put a good amount of distance between them and the scene of the brief but thorough butt-kicking.

“Kickboxing classes.” GoGo replied. “People keep making fun of how short I am. I needed someplace to get rid of all that rage. And if it helps them stop making fun of me? Even better.”

“You didn't need to do that for me, though. I'm used to it.”

GoGo stopped walking and gave her that withering look she wore in the library when they first met. “Just because you can deal with it, doesn't mean you have to keep letting it happen to you.

“You deserve better than that, because frankly? Honey Lemon, you're an amazing person, and pretty much everyone in this school is too thick to see it.”

The bell rang, signaling the end of their conversation whether they wanted to or not. The two said their goodbyes and parted ways.

Later in class, Honey Lemon realized this was probably when she fell in love with her.


	3. To The Guidance Office We Went

Honey Lemon realized she needed someone to talk to about her new-found feelings for GoGo.

Someone that Honey Lemon knew she could trust, knew wouldn't make fun of her, and really knew who she was underneath the outdated dresses, the kitten accessories, and the absurd height and distinct lack of weight.

In other words, GoGo. And Honey Lemon didn't want to talk to her about it, for obvious reasons.

And because she had GoGo, Honey Lemon had never made any other close friends, because she didn't need to—until now, that is.

Honey Lemon sighed, and realized she was caught in a Catch-22, as her English teacher would have called it: a situation where she couldn't win, no matter what she did.

The optimistic side of her said that plenty of people had gotten out of seemingly impossible, no-win situations, and that there was someone out there who fit her bill.

The realistic, but not pessimistic side of her conceded that yes, while that was possible, they were the exception, rather than the norm, and were remembered for that reason. That aside, she would have to find this person, then earn their trust through the normal fashion, because assaulting a random stranger or new friend with your romantic problems out of the blue was rude, to say the least.

That, and with the time she needed to do so, the problem will have either worsened, or GoGo will have found out.

And the pessimistic side of her… well, Honey Lemon had already realized she was in a Catch-22, there really wasn't much else it could say.

So Honey Lemon thought of an alternative solution, which is how she ended up shuffling into the bright and sunny guidance office with her head down, a dark mood, and a storm cloud above her. She plopped herself into a free seat, and sighed.

It didn't really help that the chair was—as usual—just a little too short for her to sit comfortably on. Her feet hit the floor sooner than she'd have liked, and her knees were pushed up once more.

It was a guidance counselor's job to listen to student's problems, right? They were paid to help her out, so might as well.

“Hey, Honey.”

Honey Lemon snapped to attention. It couldn't be.

She turned her head, and found out it was.

GoGo was sitting in the chair next to her. Her feet dangled in the air, which was probably why Honey Lemon didn't notice her earlier, alongside the storm cloud over her head.

Before Honey Lemon could even start to think of why GoGo was in here, too, she said it outright:

“They wanted me in here so they could tell me it's not okay to kick guys in the goolies, even if they're being jerkbags. So, what're you in for?”

Honey Lemon opened her mouth to speak, paused, then closed it. She sighed again.

“I don't want to say it. It's dumb.”

She looked down at the floor and started closely examining the kitty cat designs on the bands of her flip-flops.

GoGo gently kicked her in the leg. “Hey, come on, you can tell me. I'm your friend, it's what I do.”

Honey Lemon looked up.

GoGo was smiling. And now, Honey Lemon was, too.

“Besides, the guy in front of me's going to be in there for a while.” GoGo thumbed to the guidance counselor's office proper. The door was closed, but you could hear the faint sounds of a rather animated conversation going on inside.

“Who's in there, anyway?” Honey Lemon asked as she looked.

GoGo smirked. “The guy who was bothering us during lunch earlier. Turns out most of his victims were waiting for someone to knock them down a peg or two before they spoke up.”

Honey Lemon giggled.

“So, what's bugging you, anyway?”

Honey Lemon's giggling stopped. She frowned, and looked down at her flip-flops again. She debated telling GoGo that she was in love with her.

The optimistic side said GoGo probably loved her back and the two of them could make plans for an after school date with the free time Honey Lemon now had. It was a Friday, too, which made it doubly appropriate.

The realistic, but not pessimistic side said that GoGo probably wasn't—Honey didn't even know if she was a lesbian, too—and at best, GoGo would be cool with it, and gentle with letting Honey Lemon know she wasn't interested, and at worst, things were going to be horribly awkward for a while as GoGo slowly got used to it.

The pessimistic side… well, Honey was saving that for the guidance counselor. They were trained to handle emotional kids, and Honey Lemon knew how she got when she was emotional _and_ sad.

It was not a pretty sight, to say the least.

Since she had not gotten any braver since GoGo asked her the question, Honey Lemon decided to skirt the issue entirely by bringing up a completely different problem of hers.

“I want to wear high heels, but I'm not sure if I should.”

Honey Lemon had always liked high heels. She loved how the women who wore them walked with that sexy sway to their step. It also helped that most of them also tended to wear beautiful dresses, and looked _damn_ good, too.

But she was very aware of all their downsides, too. And more importantly, that some people just weren't made to wear them.

“I say go for it! I think you'd look _killer_ in heels.”

Honey Lemon blushed. She struggled for something to say, but even as the seconds passed in awkward silence, she found none.

Fortunately, the guidance counselor saved her from further awkwardness. They poked their head out the door and asked if GoGo would like to reschedule because their present student was going to take a lot longer than either of them had expected.

GoGo nodded. “Sure. Monday afternoon, gotcha.”

The counselor smiled, repeated their new date, then ducked back inside. Honey Lemon saw the briefest grimace on their face before the door closed once more.

GoGo hopped off her seat. “Hey, you doing anything this afternoon? And are you planning on buying anything big like new clothes any time soon?”

Honey Lemon looked at GoGo uneasily. “No, and yes… why are you asking?”

“We're going to the mall and finding you a pair of high heels. C'mon.” GoGo waved over her shoulder as she passed by Honey Lemon. “We can take my bike back to your place, unless you have a card or something.”

Honey Lemon nodded. “I have a credit card, yeah.”

GoGo smiled. “Even better. Now we can just take the bus straight to the mall.”

Honey Lemon stared at her flip-flops again. She started thinking if this was really a good idea.

GoGo stopped at the door and turned around. “Hey, Honey, you going or what? We can always reschedule, you know.”

“I'm going, I'm going!” Honey Lemon said. “Just... calculating my budget, was all.” She lied.

“Alright. I'll be at the parking lot getting my bike, see you at the bus stop. Later, Honey.” GoGo gave a casual salute and was gone.

Now trapped, Honey Lemon quietly sighed and followed Gogo outside.

It was going to be one shopping trip she was going to remember for the rest of her life.


	4. It Ended In A Shoe Store

The optimistic side of Honey Lemon said that somewhere in this shoe store was the perfect pair for her.

The realistic, but not pessimistic side of her said that it probably was, but perhaps Honey Lemon was better off sticking with flip-flops. They had served her well for all these years, why stop using them now?

The pessimistic side of her… well, she still wasn't listening to what it was saying, but it was becoming more and more tempting to do so as the minutes kept dragging on, till it became her and GoGo's third consecutive hour of shoe shopping.

Honey Lemon sighed, and sat herself down on a bench—it didn't help her mood that, like in the guidance office, her feet hit the floor too quickly, and her knees were forced up too high.

None of the shoes she'd looked at fit her needs. They were too big, the style was all wrong, or they were simply too expensive.

She was starting to think this was a bad idea. Why _did_ she want to be even taller, anyway?

“Hey, Honey, check these out.”

Honey Lemon turned to GoGo. Then, she turned her head down, because the shorter girl was kneeling and reaching into one of the very bottom rows of the display racks.

GoGo pulled out and held up a shoe. “What do you think about this one?”

Honey Lemon looked at the size sticker. It was exactly her size. She peered at the price sticker. It was within her budget. She looked at the shoe, then examined it more closely.

It was a pair of yellow platform heels, just a simple band near the toe to keep her foot in, and would boost her height up by a good number of inches.

“It's perfect!”

She hadn't meant to say it so loudly. But it really was perfect, like it was made for her.

GoGo smiled. “Let's go try it on, then.” She stood up and headed to the nearest bench.

Honey Lemon eagerly waited for her, practically vibrating in excitement, bouncing on her heels as she slipped the appropriate foot out of her flip-flops.

She had expected GoGo to hand the shoe over to her, or lay it down onto the floor where she could easily put it on. But instead, GoGo knelt by her feet, and carefully, delicately slipped the shoe onto her foot.

Honey Lemon blushed. The whole situation reminded her so much of Cinderella, except it wasn't a glass slipper, they were in a shoe store, and GoGo wasn't a charming prince(ss)—really, she'd be more of a daring knight.

GoGo looked up and smiled. “If the shoe fits...”

Honey Lemon blushed even harder. Her lips were tugging into a huge grin. This was perfect.

Way, way perfect. Like needed a new word to describe just how perfect, because it was just _better_ than perfect.

The optimistic part of her mind started to say something, but she shut it up. She shut them all up, just relishing the moment, without any thoughts optimistic, realistic but not pessimistic, or just pessimistic to ruin it.

GoGo hailed over a salesperson. As it just so happened, they were carrying a stack of boxes, and one of them was the exact same shoe as the one Honey Lemon was wearing and its pair.

This time, GoGo just stood to the side and watched with a smile on her face as the salesperson helped Honey put on both shoes. They offered to help pull Honey Lemon back onto her feet--”high heels can be problematic like that”--but she waved them off.

She wanted to do this by herself.

Honey Lemon pushed herself up. The heels made it a little more difficult to stand up, but as she finally stood to her full height—now even higher, thanks to her new shoes—she found she rather liked being absurdly tall now.

It was like there wasn't anything wrong with her being lanky and huge; she just didn't have the right pair of shoes to go with it. And these platform heels just felt natural on her.

“You look good! Scratch that, you look _beautiful_. You always look good.” GoGo said as she gave Honey a thumbs up.

Honey Lemon grinned and blushed once more. She didn't care about hiding it anymore. She looked down at her new shoes, and took a few experimental steps forward.

She wobbled and teetered about—no matter how natural she felt standing in these new shoes, walking in them was obviously going to take some getting used to.

Honey Lemon held out her hands to balance herself before she felt a strong pair of arms around her waist. She looked up and saw GoGo holding her steady, a soft smile on her face.

“Don't worry. I gotcha.”

Honey Lemon tried her very best to keep herself from tearing up. She didn't want to have to explain why she was crying in the middle of a shoe store, while trying out platform heels for the first time.

They spent a few minutes just walking around, helping Honey Lemon get used to walking in her high heels, until Honey Lemon did a clean pirouette and stopped without wobbling or swaying in the slightest.

They paid for Honey Lemon's new shoes, and she happily wore them out of the store instead of her flip-flops.

“Wow. It's like you were born to wear those.” GoGo said as the two of them walked back into the mall.

Honey Lemon chuckled and put a little spring to her step, then effortlessly resumed stride as if nothing happened. “Like you said: if the shoe fits!”

“Kind of like Cinderella, huh?”

Honey Lemon stopped.

GoGo kept on walking for a few steps until she stopped and turned around. “Something the matter, Honey?”

Honey Lemon blushed. “I, uh, actually thought the same thing, when you put my shoe on for me. Kind of like how Cinderella's prince put on her glass slipper, so he knew she was the girl he fell in love with at the ball.”

GoGo smirked and walked back to Honey Lemon. “Oh really? What happened after that? It's been a while since I heard the story.”

Honey Lemon blushed even more. “Well, he asks Cinderella to marry him.”

GoGo chuckled. “Yeah, not exactly sure about marrying you just yet.”

Was that a joke? Was that a come-on? Was it a secret message? Honey Lemon didn't stop to think, she just did.

She could think about the consequences later. This moment was too good to waste.

“Well… how about kissing me, then?” Honey Lemon grinned.

GoGo grinned back. “Sounds good to me. You mind?”

Honey Lemon bent her knees so GoGo could reach. She leaned in as GoGo wrapped her arms around her neck, and closed her eyes just before their lips met.

The kiss was amazing.

Except for the part where Honey Lemon suddenly lost her balance and the two ended up in a tangled heap on the floor.

But still, pretty awesome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It all started with a book, specifically, in the math and engineering stacks. 
> 
> Then along came a bully, and everything changed.
> 
> To the guidance office we went, and then off to the mall.
> 
> It ended in a shoe store, and with a kiss, it started all over again.


End file.
